February 09, 2016

Google Granted a New Design Patent for a Foldable Version of Google Glass

When Alphabet reported its earnings last week, we learned that Google's moonshot projects like Nest, Calico, their driverless car, robots, Project Loon and Google Glass were now under Alphabet's category "Other Bets." We learned that Alphabet invested US$3.5 billion dollars on other bet projects. Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Google a design patent for a new version of Google Glass that could be folded up when not in use.

Does this Google Design represent the next generation of Glass under Project Aura or a version of Glass that they've abandoned? Unfortunately, there's no official indication in the patent to enlighten us either way, so only time will tell.

The original design, as you could see in our cover graphic, wasn't designed to have the metal rim bend or fold whereas the new design has one folding area in addition to one swing-away mechanism as clearly outlined in the patent figure below. To see more of their granted patent design figures, see our Patently Mobile report here.

It was reported last September that Project Aura is now being run by Ivy Ross, who previously ran the Glass project. She reports to Tony Fadell, head of Google's connected-home business Nest.

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